Clippers, Kings Courting Rambis

The Clippers are expected to make a formal offer to Laker assistant coach Kurt Rambis to be their head coach, perhaps as early as today, sources close to the situation said Tuesday.

And the Sacramento Kings, who fired Eddie Jordan on Tuesday, also are interested in Rambis.

The Lakers would like to keep Rambis, but unless they promise him Del Harris’ job whenever the current Laker head coach leaves, they might not be able to retain the man who was known as Superman when he played power forward for the Showtime Laker teams of the ‘80s.

“He does a good job,” Laker General Manager Mitch Kupchak said of Rambis, “and we believe he has a future here with the Lakers. But we have assistant coaches and then there is a head coach, and that’s all there is.”

Right now, that is probably not enough for Rambis, who is eager to become a head coach after spending the last four seasons as a Laker assistant.

Neither Rambis nor his agent, Lon Rosen, was available for comment.

Rambis met once with Elgin Baylor, the Clippers’ vice president of basketball operations, this summer and had a meeting recently with team owner Donald Sterling.

To Sterling, who must pay Bill Fitch $2 million for each of the next two seasons after firing him from the head coaching job in April, Rambis is a logical choice because:

* He will work for less money than someone with head coaching experience although he is expected to ask for more than $1 million annually.

* He has name identification in Los Angeles. Baylor does not like to hire college coaches, and Sterling does not like to hire NBA assistants he is not familiar with, regardless of their credentials.

* Rambis brings some of the Laker mystique with him, an important consideration for Sterling because his team will be sharing the same building with the Lakers, the Staples Center, starting in the fall of 1999, and he is looking for ways to avoid being overshadowed by his more glamorous and successful co-tenants.

The Kings’ search for a coach was triggered by the firing of a former Rambis teammate. Jordan, 43, spent seven seasons in the NBA, including 1981-82 when he and Rambis were members of a Laker team that won the NBA championship. Jordan also returned to the Lakers briefly in the 1983-84 season.

He joined the Kings as an assistant in 1992 and compiled a 33-64 record as the head coach after replacing Garry St. Jean in the final weeks of the 1996-97 season.

Also fired Tuesday was Sacramento assistant Mike Bratz.

Jordan’s first coaching job was as a volunteer assistant at Rutgers. Rambis started with the Lakers.

“Each year I have seen improvement in him,” Kupchak said of Rambis. “And I think he will get better still.

“He is the hardest worker of any assistant I have ever seen. He continues to ask questions every day, he watches tape and he is eager to learn. He had to know details [of the game] more than other players [who had more talent], and that certainly didn’t hurt him. He speaks well and, most importantly, he has been involved in a winning organization for many years.”

Rambis will lose that if he joins the Clippers. But what he will gain is head coaching experience, which could help him in the future if the Laker head coaching job does open up.

“This organization has never stood in anybody’s way,” Kupchak said.

Nobody knows that better than Kupchak. He had offers to go elsewhere when he was assistant general manager under Jerry West. But Kupchak stayed with the Lakers and was rewarded with his current position.

“Selfishly, I don’t want to see him go anywhere,” Kupchak said. “But Kurt has to do the best thing for him and his family. If he gets an offer, Kurt has a decision to make.”